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Chapter 63: No Other Choice

Chapter 63: No Other Choice

Chen Chen stood within the bright, spacious operating room with a tray of medical equipment .

As he observed the slender back of the girl on the operating table, Chen Chen’s eyes remained calm .

It was as if he was not looking at a member of the opposite sex, but rather, an object, an animal or even a corpse…

He gently stroked her smooth back before finally glancing at the BIS monitor .

Upon the screen, the EEG’s bispectral index had been hovering between 50 and 55, indicating that the girl was under deep anesthesia .

After determining that there were no other issues, Chen Chen picked up a No . 10 scalpel .

Before this, he had used a CT scan to mark out the specific injury site of the spinal cord . It was the 19th vertebra of the spine . A section of the spinal nerve in the marrow cavity had suffered hemorrhagic necrosis due to external compression .

It was just this small part of necrosis that blocked the nerve signals of the brain from being transmitted to the legs . Thus, this girl had been in a wheelchair for ten years .

However, she was well nursed, fortunately . Over the years, with continuous directional epidural EES and other auxiliary treatments, the girl’s leg muscles and nerves still remained intact, without suffering from atrophy or necrosis .

At this time, the center of her 19th vertebra had been marked with a cross . The mark was around 1cm long and 0 . 5cm wide . This was where Chen Chen would operate .

Chen Chen lifted the scalpel in a pencil grip and slowly made an incision along the cross . The cut was not too deep nor too shallow, reaching the dermis .

Trickles of blood oozed out from the severed capillaries at once, swiftly running together . Against her ivory-white complexion, the red seemed strange and garish .

Outside the operating room, Samuel could not stop himself from clenching his fists .

He had asked to be involved in the surgical procedure . After all, he had performed various facial surgeries before and was more than qualified to act as an assistant .

Nonetheless, Chen Chen refused .

According to Chen Chen, Samuel, being a relative of the patient, would only hinder Chen Chen in the operating room and not be of any help .

Now, Chen Chen stopped his incision and instead took out a pair of dilating forceps to stop the bleeding and open the wound . Then, he picked up a No . 11 scalpel which was even sharper and started to cut the dermis .

In this manner, he cut through the layers . There was no hesitation in Chen Chen’s hands at all . Each incision was just right as if he had been immersed in this operation for decades .

From Samuel’s point of view, the entire operation was like a performance, one which used his own daughter as the stage…

Gradually, as if his emotions were soothed by Chen Chen’s skills, his fists loosened .

Finally, Chen Chen had managed to successfully avoid the blood vessels, nerves, and muscle fibers, reaching the endpoint of the operation .

At this moment, a piece of bone, encased in the periosteum, was exposed on the girl’s back . This was the spinous process and the transverse process of the 19th vertebra . Within this bone was the necrotic spinal nerve .

When he reached this point, Chen Chen picked up the X-ray and took another look, ascertaining that the position was correct . Following that, he took out a needle meant to puncture the bone marrow .

Chen Chen positioned the needle on the fixator . Then, holding the needle in his right hand, he inserted the needle vertically, twisting it into the bone layer bit by bit .

When he sensed that the needle had penetrated the bone layer, he stopped the motion, pulled out the needle, and made another puncture a few millimeters away .

Chen Chen only stopped what he was doing when there were sixteen tiny punctures in two parallel rows at the spine . Soon, he used a pair of tweezers to extract a fingernail-sized chip from the disinfectant .

He positioned it along the spine and the sixteen electrodes on the chip were inserted perfectly into the sixteen small holes on the spine .

Next, Chen Chen fixed the chip onto the spine with bio-adhesive glue and began to suture the wound, layer by layer, with suture thread .

From Samuel’s position, he could only see Chen Chen placing an item into his daughter’s body . As for what it was, he did not know .

Around half an hour later, Chen Chen finally straightened up and sighed softly .

Currently, there was a tiny cross-shaped wound on the girl’s back . The wound was minuscule . Although there was some redness and swelling, no one would have guessed that this wound extended to her spine .

When Chen Chen pushed the girl out of the operating room, Samuel rushed up eagerly . He first inspected the girl’s pupils and heaved a sigh of relief after seeing that everything appeared fine .

“The operation is completed . As for the result, I think that it’s a great success,” Chen Chen said .

“That black item at the end, was that the God chip?” Samuel suddenly asked, “Don’t try to deceive me . ”

“That’s not God, just a simplified version of it . ”

Chen Chen took off his gloves and said casually, “It won’t affect your daughter’s life in any way . ”

“D*mn it!”

When Samuel heard this, he erupted in rage . He grabbed Chen Chen by the collar and hollered, “I’ve never said that she’d also join the organization . If she’s dragged into all this, I’d rather she could never walk!”

“Samuel, please calm down . I won’t do anything to her . ” Chen Chen slowly stretched out a hand and gently squeezed Samuel’s wrist .

Samuel suddenly felt that the young man before him was producing a fearsome force as if a pair of iron tongs had gripped his wrist!

Extreme pain hit him . Samuel felt that his wrist would be crushed to bits in the next moment . He could not help but bend over, wailing, his face turning beet red from overexertion .

Having pried away Samuel’s hand bit by bit, Chen Chen remained placid throughout . “That chip isn’t permanent . In two years, at most, the organization’s stem cell project will be completed, and your daughter can get the chip removed . ”

“Of course,” Chen Chen said after a thoughtful pause, “if you don’t mind delaying her recovery by two years, I can remove the chip right now . ”

When Samuel heard this, he fell silent, still rubbing his wrist .

“I know that you’ll guess that the chip is God . After all, the agreement explains the God chip’s working principle . I wouldn’t hide it from you, either . ”

Chen Chen continued explaining gently and patiently, “Even so, there was no way around it . Although the organization has made major breakthroughs in the field of stem cells, we’re still at the clinical trial stage, after all . I’m assuming you wouldn’t want to use your daughter as a guinea pig, right?

“Therefore, the best solution was to first use a simplified version of the God chip . Allow her to walk first . Then, in two or three years, when the stem cell technology of the organization has been fully developed, naturally, you may remove the chip then, and she’ll become a perfectly healthy person .

“After all…”

Chen Chen paused, then went in for the kill . “How much more of your daughter’s youth do you want to waste?”

“…”

Samuel lowered his eyes sullenly as he was cast into an agonizing internal struggle .

After a long silence, Samuel appeared to have made a decision . He looked at Chen Chen steadily and asked again, “Can I trust you?”

Chen Chen nodded and simply replied,

“You have no other choice . ”